Rapt Eskimos Listen
to Recorded Concert
of Their Own Music
Most Eskimos are musi
cal; they sing excellently.
However, their folk music,
like primitive music in
most lands, tends to fade
away as radios and phono
graphs move in. Even
now, few of the northern
natives can sing the songs
of their ancestors. To pre
serve what is left, the au
thor took a wire recorder
north and persuaded Bow
doin's visitors to sing into
it.
These Polar Eskimos lis
tened attentively to music
sung by their kinsmen.
Later, when they heard
their own voices played
back to them, they laughed
with delight.
In addition to music, the
author has made wire re
cordings of the Eskimo lan
guage, one of the most
complex in the world. It
is so hard to learn that
few travelers ever acquire
more than a smattering.
The average Eskimo has a
vocabulary of more than
10,000 words.
Donald MacMillan